Men more at risk for cognitive impairment, death after hip fracture

After a hip fracture, men are more cognitively impaired and therefore more at risk of death than women, researchers in Baltimore say.

In 2025 the number of hip fractures in men as high as what is currently seen in women, the researchers warn.

That makes these fractions are “an emerging public health concern for older men, their families, and the healthcare system,” said Dr. Ann Gruber-Baldini University of Maryland School of Medicine, and her colleagues. “In comparison with women, men who have a hip fracture have an increased risk of mortality . . . despite their young age at the time of the breach.”

As reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the researchers compared the effects of a hip fracture on the thinking skills and risk of death in the 166 men and 168 women over the age of 80.

More about this…

Testosterone gel shows no benefit for older men memories

This underwear can protect your junk from mobile phones

Why you’re going bald and how do you get her back

The men had significantly more other diseases to begin with, and more of them were diagnosed with dementia. Also, men were significantly more impaired on most cognitive measures.

After taking a pre-fracture dementia and other risk factors are taken into account, men were still at a significantly higher risk for poor scores on a large number of tests of thinking skills.

Also, men had a higher mortality rate than women six months after hip fracture – and the men of the scores on the cognitive tests were significantly associated with the risk of death: those who did poorly on the tests were more likely to die during the study.

On a common test – the modified Mini-Mental-State – Exam – almost a third of the men with poor scores died within six months, compared with 15 percent of the women with poor scores and 11 percent of men with no cognitive problems. By contrast, only 2 percent of the women without cognitive problems on this test died within six months.

No significant interaction effect between gender and cognition.

Gruber-Baldini told Reuters Health, “It may be valuable for doctors to monitor hip fracture patients after discharge from hospital – especially men – to see if they still suffer from cognitive impairment and the consequences of the delirium.”

“Interventions to reduce delirium – evaluation of drugs, nutrition, infections, and comorbid conditions – may be required,” she said by e-mail. “It is also important that people with cognitive impairment for rehabilitation to help improve their mobility.”

Orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Tiberi of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles, California, told Reuters Health, “hip fractures in the elderly are known to have significant risks, even after adequate treatment.”

“This research underscores the increasing incidence of hip fractures in men and higher rates of a number of negative outcomes in men compared with women,” he said by e-mail. “Knowledge of these findings can better help carers and family members in providing care and support for hip fracture patients during the incredibly important for the recovery and rehabilitation process.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2lT1pvE Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, online February 8, 2017.

You may also like

close Undo a vasectomy Q&A with Dr. Manny: can I cancel my vasectomy? You thought you were done with children, so that, vasectomy seemed like a great idea. But now, you have second thoughts. Is it too late to be a father again? You probably...

close What you need to know about the rise of oral HPV cases in men A new study shows 11 million people were infected with oral HPV between 2011 and 2014, but what’s worse, 7 million of those men had HPV strains that can cause cancer. What is...

The typical father is now nearly 31 years old at the time of his birth. (iStock) A new study shows that the average age of the fathers in the US rises as men a few extra years to practice their father’s jokes for kids. The typical father is...

Less than half of the doctors said that they referred patients to a reproductive specialist when patients had fertility concerns. (iStock) Half of the cancer patients of childbearing age do not receive adequate information about the impact of...

Capsule spilling out of a white bottle in wooden spoon with green leaf on sack background. (Gam1983) These days, everyone on the labels of their products on natural get a leg up in the consumer world. Consumers by the thousands are looking for...

While scientists and doctors have long known that a woman’s chances of having a child drop the older they are, a new study suggests that a man’s age can have an impact on a few chances. According to a new study from the Beth Israel...

Cancer kills Nearly 1.7 million people receive a cancer diagnosis in 2017, and more than 600,000 people will die from it, according to a report from the American Cancer Society (ACS). And the photo appears to be especially terrible for the men. For...

LOS ANGELES – Police are investigating a claim by a Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator that an anesthesiologist uses a painkiller to hasten the death of a seriously wounded boy to increase the likelihood that his organs could be...

The prevailing orthodoxy among public health officials is that the government spends more on sexual education, the less teen pregnancies. Now, however, the British researchers have found empirical evidence that appears to show exactly the opposite...